Tennessee state lawmakers advance bill that could ban the LGBTQ Pride flag in schools

By Chandelis Duster, CNN

(CNN) — State lawmakers in Tennessee could soon pass a bill that would limit the types of flags that can be displayed in public schools, sparking outcry from LGBTQ advocates who say the measure is an attempt to ban the Pride flag and curtail free speech.

The Tennessee state House advanced HB 1605 to the state Senate Thursday, an amendment to the Tennessee Code that sets out which flags can be displayed in schools. The new bill designates several types of flags that can be displayed, including the U.S. flag, the official Tennessee state flag, and any flag that is protected by the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act.

Critics argue that including the Tennessee Heritage Protection Act in the amendment would allow the Confederate flag to be displayed, while banning the Pride flag.

The Heritage Protection Act, which went into effect in 2013, states “no memorial regarding a historic conflict, historic entity, historic event … that is, or is located on, public property, may be removed, renamed, relocated, altered, rededicated, or otherwise disturbed or altered.”

The law specifically notes memorials and flags dedicated to what some euphemistically call the “War Between the States,” but is historically known as the Civil War, cannot be removed. Although the law does not specifically name the Confederate flag, many critics have noted that it would be protected under the act.

Tennessee state Rep. Gino Bulso, a Republican, said he introduced HB1605 last November after receiving complaints from parents in his district about the Pride flag and after contentious debates over whether the flag should be allowed in classrooms erupted during a local school board meeting.

Last month, during a Tennessee House education subcommittee hearing, Bulso said the bill “does not allow any other flag beyond the 10 that are listed” to be displayed, adding that the ban also includes “flags that teachers are currently using to indoctrinate students in a particular set of values, including the Pride flag which is becoming more ubiquitous in schools.”

Several people at the hearing groaned in response to Bulso’s claim that teachers were “indoctrinating” students by displaying the Pride flag.

On the floor of the state house, Democratic State Rep. Justin Pearson called the bill “immoral and unjust” and proposed an unsuccessful amendment that would have banned Confederate flags from being displayed.

Despite the criticism, Bulso remained undeterred.

“[It] really addresses one issue, which is whether parents should be the ones who decide what values their children are exposed to when they go to school,” he said during the meeting of the house committee that debated and voted on the bill.

If it passes, HB1605 would also give a parent or guardian of a student “standing to file a civil action” against public or charter schools to enforce the amendment.

LGBTQ advocates and civil rights groups have criticized the amendment, calling it an attack on First Amendment rights and harmful to students.

Chris Sanders, executive director of the Tennessee Equality Project and Tennessee Equality Project Foundation, told CNN the Pride flag “is a way of signaling to LGBTQ students that they are safe and accepted.”

LGBTQ youth face higher bullying and discrimination rates than many of their peers Sanders said. “They need accepting adults in their lives and it’s better if they don’t have to guess who they are.

“Furthermore, if a small group of parents wants power over what everyone else sees, then they can try to repeal the First Amendment. Otherwise, I fail to see how they have the right to control the speech and expression of others.”

Democratic Tennessee state lawmakers have also pushed back on the bill.

“What this bill is doing, per your words, is now saying things like the LGBTQ flag are now barred,” Tennessee state Rep. Sam McKenzie, a Democrat, said during a debate of the bill on the state House floor last week. “This is a horrible bill.”

The effort to ban Pride flags in Tennessee comes amid a growing parental rights movement in the US that seeks to empower parents to decide what can be taught in classrooms about race, sexuality and gender.

HB1605 is the latest in a series of anti-LGBTQ bills working their way through state legislatures across the country. In 2023, at least 510 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Tennessee and North Dakota tied for the most number of anti-LGBTQ bills passed, with 10 each.

In June, attorneys for the state of Tennessee asked a federal appeals court to reverse a federal judge’s decision that a state law limiting public drag show performances was unconstitutional.

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